Sonia casts her vote, allays Prasada’s rigging fears

She, along with All India Congress Committe memeber Jitendra Prasada is the candidate for the post of Congress president.

Sonia Gandhi categorically denied the allegations levelled by Prasada about irregularities in the voter list. “I do not agree with it”, she said adding, “I have full faith in the election authority headed by Mr Ram Niwas Mirdha”.

She also allayed the fears expressed by Parsada that election for the post of Congress president might not be impartial. “Such apprehensions are baseless”, was her brief reply.

When her attention was drawn towards the reported statement of Mirdha about possibility of some discrepancies in the election process, the Congress president did not offer any direct reaction on it. “The present party election is a massive process and if there are some discrepencies left, these may be worked out even after the election”, she pointed out.

In reply to another question with regards to her victory as the party president, Sonia Gandhi said “I have full faith in my party workers”.

The UPCC premises was abuzz with hectic activities since last evening after the information of Sonia Gandhi coming here to cast her vote was received by the state Congress unit. The banners and posters donned the walls of the UPCC headquarters at mall avenue and other parts of the state capital.

Jitendra Prasada was here yesterday to mobilise the support of party workers in his favour. However, the number of his supporters at the state party headquarter belied his claim of massive support.

While state party leaders including Ambika Soni, Makhan Lal Fotedar and Salman Khurshid and UPCC chief Sri Prakash Jaiswal attended Gandhi, Prasada was seen standing in a corner away from the limelight he used to be in during his days as the UPCC president.

Earlier, the Congress president was accorded a tumultuous welcome when she arrived at Amuasi airport this morning.

Gandhi drove down to Raj Bhawan from the airport and made her entry into the UPCC premises at about 11.45 a.m. She stayed there for about twenty minutes during which stampede like atmosphere prevailed in the headquarters.

The party leaders, workers and mediapersons had to go through a real tough time to get near to her and the media people had a minor scuffle with personal securitymen of the Congress president.

Gandhi, who was about to drive away, got off the car when some media persons raised their voices to attract her attention. She spoke to media for few minutes before driving off.

The entire UPCC office was cordoned off by the security as Gandhi was being provided Z-plus secuirty. The barricades were erected around the office and metal detectors were installed at many places. Even the delegates had to face problems to cast their votes.

More than eleven hundred voters were their as the UPCC delegates before creation of uttaranchal but after hill state came into being, the number of votes from UP had been reduced to 966.

She is scheduled to be back in Delhi in the afternoon.